What enforcement actions did E. Jean Carroll pursue after the 2023 and 2024 verdicts, and what were the outcomes reported through 2026?
Executive summary
E. Jean Carroll secured a May 2023 jury finding that Donald Trump was liable for sexual abuse and defamation and was awarded roughly $5 million, then won a separate January 2024 judgment for defamation that produced an $83.3 million award; she pursued those civil judgments through post-trial collection efforts and appeals, with courts upholding liability and large damage awards into 2024 and 2025, while public reporting through 2026 documents ongoing appellate skirmishes and collection obstacles but does not show full satisfaction of the judgments [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. How the two major judgments unfolded and what Carroll sought to enforce
The legal campaign unfolded as two distinct civil actions: a May 2023 federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation stemming from Carroll’s allegation about a 1990s Bergdorf Goodman encounter and awarded her about $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages, a judgment that Carroll then moved to enforce as any prevailing plaintiff would [1] [5] [3]. After the 2023 verdict, Judge Lewis Kaplan found in related rulings that Trump’s public comments were defamatory, and that finding led to a second trial and a January 2024 jury award ordering Trump to pay Carroll approximately $83.3 million for additional defamation damages tied to his post-verdict statements, creating a combined multistage judgment package Carroll pursued to collect [2] [3].
2. Immediate enforcement steps after the May 2023 verdict
Following the May 2023 verdict, the routine enforcement path was set in motion: judgments were entered and Carroll sought to convert jury awards into collectable judgments, while Trump’s legal team filed post-trial motions and appeals contesting liability and the size of punitive damages; reporting notes that Carroll’s lawyers and the court treated the 2023 award as a basis for subsequent defamation findings and further remedies [1] [5] [3]. Public accounts emphasize that the 2023 verdict served as a legal predicate for later rulings on defamation, and Carroll pressed for both recognition of liability and monetary recovery rather than criminal prosecution, consistent with civil enforcement [3] [5].
3. The January 2024 defamation award and Carroll’s follow-up enforcement posture
In January 2024, a federal judge and a jury found Trump liable again for defamation based on statements he made after the 2023 verdict, producing the much larger $83.3 million award that Carroll sought to enforce; media coverage framed that judgment as a separate — and far larger — monetary remedy Carroll pursued to hold Trump accountable for post-verdict denials and attacks [2] [3]. Coverage noted that this was not Carroll’s first monetary win—she had already been awarded $5 million in 2023—and that the January award dramatically increased the stakes for collection and appeals [2] [1].
4. Appeals, bonds and appellate rulings through 2025 that shaped enforcement
Trump appealed both judgments and sought relief from appellate courts; reporting shows an appeals court in late December 2024 upheld the 2023 liability finding and the $5 million award, rejecting Trump’s appeal of the liability verdict [4] [6]. Subsequent reporting in sources compiled herein indicates appellate fights continued over the larger $83.3 million January 2024 award, with courts entertaining bonds and punitive-damage challenges and at least one circuit-level decision and procedural rulings into 2025 affecting Carroll’s ability to collect while appeals proceeded [3] [7].
5. Collection realities, practical obstacles and what public reporting through 2026 shows
Public sources document the legal victories and appellate affirmances but show that converting judgments into tangible payment is a complex, multi-year process subject to appeals, bonds, and potential stays; reporting through 2025 and into late 2024 records court rulings upholding liability and awards and notes bond and appeal activity, but the materials provided do not establish that Carroll had fully collected the combined awards by 2026 and instead depict ongoing enforcement and appellate proceedings [4] [3] [7]. These accounts also reflect divergent perspectives: Carroll’s supporters frame the rulings as accountability, while Trump’s legal team characterized the awards as excessive and appealed vigorously, an adversarial posture that slowed immediate collection [2] [6].
6. Bottom line and limits of available reporting
By the end of 2024 and in reporting extending into 2025, Carroll had pursued enforcement of two major civil judgments — the May 2023 $5 million award and the January 2024 $83.3 million defamation award — and courts had, in key instances, upheld liability and damage findings while appeals and bond motions continued to shape when and whether she would be paid; the sources assembled here do not provide a definitive record of full collection by 2026, and public reporting through the cited material leaves open the ultimate resolution of enforcement as appeals and collection mechanisms continued [1] [2] [4] [3].